That looks awesome. Seriously, next time we have a book self (um, two and a half years time?) I am so going to colour co-ordinate it. Which will completely freak out the part of me that wants to dewey decimal system organise my books... sigh (I can't win).

Ha! This reminds me of something that happened when I was teaching 7th grade. A student of mine was aghast at the sheer number of books I had bought for the classroom library that week, and she gave me this gem of a quote:

“Miss S–you know how you constantly buy books? Even though you have a lot? When you keep doing something even though you don’t need to? That’s called a compulsion. And it’s a sickness.”

Well I, for one, am drooling. It's like a scene off of the bookshelf porn website. (Take a look at the website...You will swoon and want to tear off all your clothes.)

But I'm wondering what criteria you used for deciding whether books with mostly white should go on the white shelf or the colored shelf, because I see some anomalies. I'm guessing there's some mathematical criteria, similar to the way they judged race in in the Apartheid days...

My bookshelves look shockingly similar! Even down to the actual books (lots of Lonely Planets here too). I recently restacked the already color-coordinated shelves and then gazed at them for approximately 45 minutes sighing with satisfaction. My roommates do not understand, which is fine, as long as they just let me DO. MY. THING!

If it's a disease, I have it too. Am in the process of doing this to the bookshelves in our office. And of course in process means all the books are in piles all over the floor because I am agonizing over what shelf which color should go on.

OOoh, love. How long did this take you? I want to do this to my books but am afraid I'd get sidetracked halfway through and spend the next few weeks tripping over giant piles of books stacked on the floor.

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A. Nov 11, 2010

I did that to my bookshelves, too. Apart from looking awesome and being soul-satisfying to gaze upon, I find it way easier now to find my books. when I picture them in my head, I see what color they are. I never remember who wrote what.

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Julie Nov 11, 2010

And the librarian falls over dead at the thought of things being out of order. THUD.

Lovely! I do my books the same way, and everyone who walks into my house is either in love with the rainbow of books or completely horrified ("How do you FIND anything???"). But, honestly, almost no one really alphabetizes their books and keeps them that way, and I can almost always find any book I want within a minute.

I did my books the same way, and I LOVE IT. I did not, however, love the process, most of which involved me downing glasses of wine and crawling over books. Looks lovely---I love your built-in!

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Nothing But BonfiresNov 11, 2010

Kate -- I'm not in love with the ones on their sides either, but I seem to have a lot of big red, yellow, and orange books and the big ones wouldn't fit standing up!

Pieces of a Sometimes Extraordinary Life -- I know, I'd kind of lost steam by the time I got to the white books. Might need to do a little rearranging. I sort of want an entire shelf of plain white books, like they have in IKEA.

Starla -- nope, definitely not all travel guides! That would be insane!

Ris -- didn't take too long. We JUST had the built-ins finished so our books had been in boxes for the last four months and I was eager to unpack them. Probably took an hour one night to take them all out of the boxes and stack them by color on the floor, then an hour or two last night to actually put them on the shelves. It was incredibly soothing and therapeutic, but then I'm a freak like that.

A -- EXACTLY. Sean's argument was that we'd never find anything like this, but I always picture my books by color anyway (maybe something to do with the fact that I also picture the days of the week by color?) so it's actually easier for me to find a particular book this way. Besides, we never alphabetized them to start with: I separated out the poetry and the travel guides on our old bookshelf, but aside from that, I've always just lumped all my books together, so this is a vast improvement in organization for me!

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Andrea Cox Nov 11, 2010

You and I, we have the same disease. I've learned to embrace it.

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Rachel H Nov 11, 2010

I totally did this and while everyone who comes over loves it and thinks it's adorable, I cannot find a specific book for the life of me.

It drives me crazy but it looks so nice.

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Nothing But BonfiresNov 11, 2010

I know, I kind of just wanted to do it to see if I could do it -- and to see what it would look like -- but I think there's a 50/50 chance I'll end up reorganizing everything in a couple of months if I get sick of it.

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Alyce Nov 11, 2010

I think it's lovely. I'd probably throw a trinket or two in there to spread them out. Or a plant or a clock or a statue or a vignette. And I'd want the stacked books (a look of which I am very fond) to not all be on the left side of each shelf. But I'm weird like that. Not assvice, I promise.

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WendyB Nov 11, 2010

Love, love, love the built-ins. I can't wait til we live in a house where we can have them.

I'm a category sorter, al the travel together and then sorted by area. All thrilles together and then by author. I'm not sure if I could do the color thing just b/c I'd never find anything! This did make me think of a cruel April Fool's joke for my husband's DVDs though...except that he'd make me put them back!

And I do think you were at a great advantage doing thir from the packed boxes rather than taking thing off shelevs or moving around shelves.

Just had to drop in and say I loved your comment on Whoorl today. My thoughts *exactly.

Just curious- what pair did you buy that don't make you look like an "80's video??" (just got first pair of knee high boots, and need skinny jeans that I can actually wear- with a few extra pounds goin' on:).

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Nothing But BonfiresNov 11, 2010

Torrie -- I don't know what brand they are, just some black corduroy/velvet-ish skinnies I found at TJ Maxx. Sorry, that's not helpful in the LEAST, is it?

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Sheila Nov 11, 2010

I think it looks great, but am I ever allowed to come back to this blog if I admit that it took reading the comments for me to see that they were in ROYGBIV order?

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Rachel Nov 11, 2010

All my clothes and books are organized by color! I love how it looks. I'm super jealous of your giant bookcase!

That looks so lovely...but good luck finding anything. That's the main reason I don't arrange by color....also because I don't think I have enough color variety in my book collection and our bookcase shelves are varied in size so certain books only fit on certain shelves.

you know, as pretty as this is, it's a decorating pet peeve of mine. only because i'm a super-organized person and it would drive me crazy to have them sorted like that. alphabetical by author, then by title for me. but lovely to look at yours! :)

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Tara Nov 11, 2010

If that's a disease, I want you to sneeze on me! I could use some organizing mojo in my house!!

I did that in my old apartment and it made me realize that though I thought I remembered books by the colors of their spines, I actually remember them as the completely wrong color. It sure was pretty though, so I didn't mind too much!

i would totally organize my books like this. once i have managed to collect enough for it to make sense, anyway. i usually remember things by what color they are, so this method would be quite logical for me. and, pretty! love the look of it on the white shelves.

I love it! A dear friend of mine did this in her house and I had to do a double-take at first and then I was like - SO GLAM. My books are too boring in color to pull it off myself. Well done! (random reader in Minneapolis)

I love color organizing (and your shelves look lovely!), but I seriously can't do it with my books. I've tried! And then I had to go back to being completely anal about organizing them by author and title. I actually have a dream to one day have a library big enough to warrant the use of an old-fashioned card catalog system. IF ONLY.